Song Lyric Sunday: Robbie Williams, “It’s De-Lovely”

Jim took a suggestion from Paula for this week’s prompt, which is "Delightful, Pleasant, Sweet." I have the perfect song for that…

"It’s De-Lovely" is a song Cole Porter wrote for his 1936 musical Red Hot And Blue, where it was first sung by Ethel Merman and Bob Hope. It was later used in Porter’s 1934 musical Anything Goes when it was filmed in 1956, where Mitzi Gaynor and Donald O’Connor performed it. Hal Linden and Barbara Lang did it for the 1962 revival of the show, and Robbie Williams, whose version I’m using, did it in the 2004 biopic De-Lovely, which starred Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd. Wikipedia lists others who have recorded it.

The reason I chose the Williams version was because the lyrics are in the video. If you prefer, you can see the lyrics on AZLyrics.

And that’s Song Lyric Sunday, and Song of the Day, for September 19, 2021.

Song Lyric Sunday: “Mo rùn geal dìleas” (“My Faithful Fair One”)

Jim got another prompt from Lady A for this week: "Devoted, Faithful, Honorable, Loyal, True." Here’s a song from Scotland, written by Iain MacGhill-Eathain from Mull. It’s sung by The Rankin Family, who are, according to Wikipedia "a Canadian musical family group from Mabou, Nova Scotia. The group has won many Canadian music awards, including 15 East Coast Music Awards, six Juno Awards, four SOCAN Awards, three Canadian Country Music Awards and two Big Country Music Awards." It’s in Gaelic, but there’s one verse in English.

I found the lyrics (Gaelic and English) on the Omniglot website.

(Sèist:)
Mo rùn geal dìleas, dìleas, dìleas
Mo rùn geal dìleas nach till thu nall
Cha till mi fhèin riut, a ghaoi chan fhaod mi
‘S ann tha mi ghaoil ‘na mo laighe tinn.

Is truagh nach robh mi an riochd na faoilinn
A shnàmhadh aotrom air bhàrr nan tonn
Is bheirinn sgrìobag do’n eilean Ileach
Far bheil an rìbhinn dh’fhàg m’inntinn trom. (Sèist:)

Thug mi mìos ann am fiabhras claoidhte
Gun dùil rium oidhche gu’m bithinn beò
B’e fàth mo smaointean a là ‘s a dh’oidhche
Gum faighinn faochadh is tu bhi ‘m chòir. (Sèist:)

Cha bhi mi strì ris a’ chraoibh nach lùb leam
Ged chinneadh ùbhlan air bhàrr gach gèig
Mo shoraidh slàn leat ma rinn thu m’fhàgail
Cha d’thàinig tràigh gun muir-làn na dèidh. (Sèist:)

English translation (doesn’t fit the music):

(Chorus:)
My faithful fair darling,
My faithful fair darling, won’t you turn back to me;
I will not turn with you, my love, I cannot
For my beloved is lying ill.

I grieve I am not in the guise of a seagull,
Swimming light on top of the waves;
And I would journey to the island of Islay
Where tarries the maiden who vexes my soul. (Chorus:)

I spent a month in the torment of fever
When each night I did not expect to survive;
The object of my thoughts each day and night
That my request be granted and you at my side. (Chorus:)

I will not struggle with the tree I can’t bend,
Though each bough be amply laden with apples;
My fond farewell to you if you have left me,
The sea never ebbs, but follows the flow (Chorus:)

That’s Song Lyric Sunday (and Song of the Day) for September 12, 2021.

Song Lyric Sunday: “Manha de Carnaval”

This week’s prompt, "Carnival, Festival, Gala, Jamboree, Party," was supplied to Jim by Lady A. (Sadly, I have no link to her…)

"Manha de Carnaval" ("Carnival Morning") is a song written by Luiz Bonfa with lyrics by Antonio Maria for the 1959 film Orfeu Negro (Black Orpheus). Wikipedia tells us "It is based on the play Orfeu da Conceição by Vinicius de Moraes, which is itself an adaptation of the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, set in the modern context of a favela in Rio de Janeiro during Carnaval. The film was an international co-production among production companies in Brazil, France and Italy." Bonfa and Antonio Carlos Jobim wrote parts of the soundtrack, and the film fueled the popularity of bossa nova.

This is a version with the original Portuguese lyrics, sung by Carmen Monarcha, Carla Mafioletti, and Suzan Erens, with an orchestra led by Andre Rieu.

The lyrics, in both Portuguese and English, courtesy of LyricsTranslate.com:

Manhã tão bonita manhã
Na vida uma nova canção
Cantando só teus olhos
Teu riso, tuas mãos
Pois há de haver um dia em que virás

Das cordas do meu violão
Que só teu amor procurou
Vem uma voz,
falar dos beijos perdidos
Nos labios teus

Canta o meu coração
Alegria voltou
Tão feliz a manhã desse amor

[Instrumental Break]

Vem uma voz,
falar dos beijos perdidos
Nos labios teus

Canta o meu coração
Alegria voltou
Tão feliz a manhã desse amor

English translation:

Morning, what a beautiful morning
There is a new song in life
Singing just your eyes
Your laugh, your hands
Because there must be a day when you will go back

From the strings of my guitar
That your love sought out
There comes a voice
Speaking of lost kisses
Upon your lips

My heart is singing
Happiness has returned
How happy is the morning of this love

[Instrumental break]

There comes a voice
Speaking of lost kisses
Upon your lips

My heart is singing
Happiness has returned
How happy is the morning of this love

There are a number of English translations of the song. One was sung by Perry Como in 1963 as "Carnival."

Those lyrics from AZLyrics:

I’ll sing to the sun in the sky,
I’ll sing ’till the sun rises high,
Carnival time is here,
Magical time of year,
And as the time draws near,
Dreams lift my heart!

I’ll sing as I play my guitar,
I’ll cling to a dream from afar,
Will love come my way,
This carnival day,
And stay here in my heart?

Will true love come my way,
On this carnival day,
Or will I be alone with my dream?

"A Day In The Life Of A Fool" is another translation. It was done by Frank Sinatra. Lyrics are in the video.

And that, at last, is Song Lyric Sunday (and Song of the Day) for August 5, 2021.

Song Lyric Sunday: Jeannie C. Riley, “Harper Valley PTA”

Jim got today’s prompt from Angie Trafford: "Fraud, Hypocrite, Phony, Pretender, Snob." This took a couple of minutes to come up with, but I think I got a good one…

"Harper Valley PTA" is a song by the late Tom T. Hall. He wrote it in early 1968 and the demo reached the desk of Shelby Singleton, a former Mercury Records produer who had just started his own label, Plantation Records. Singleton had just received a demo from Texas country singer Jeannie C. Riley, and thought the song was perfect for her. He and Ms. Riley worked together on the song and it was released in August 1968. It became an almost instantaneous hit, reaching the top of both the Hot 100 and the Hot Country Singles chart, something a female artist wouldn’t do again until Dolly Parton did it in 1981 with the song "9 to 5." The song sold over six million copies and inspired both a movie and TV series of the same name, both of which starred Barbara Eden.

Hall said that he was inspired to write the song from a story he remembered from when he was a boy in Olive Hill, Kentucky in the 1940’s, which was almost exactly like the song. In that case, the PTA looked askance at a young widowed mother and her modern ways and was taking it out on her daughter. The mother showed up at the next PTA meeting and gave them a piece of her mind…

The lyrics, from AZLyrics:

I want to tell you all a story ’bout a Harper Valley widowed wife
Who had a teenage daughter who attended Harper Valley Junior High
Well her daughter came home one afternoon and didn’t even stop to play
She said, “Mom, I got a note here from the Harper Valley P.T.A.”

The note said, “Mrs. Johnson, you’re wearing your dresses way too high
It’s reported you’ve been drinking and a-runnin’ ’round with men and going wild
And we don’t believe you ought to be bringing up your little girl this way”
It was signed by the secretary, Harper Valley P.T.A.

Well, it happened that the P.T.A. was gonna meet that very afternoon
They were sure surprised when Mrs. Johnson wore her mini-skirt into the room
And as she walked up to the blackboard, I can still recall the words she had to say
She said, “I’d like to address this meeting of the Harper Valley P.T.A.”

Well, there’s Bobby Taylor sittin’ there and seven times he’s asked me for a date
Mrs. Taylor sure seems to use a lot of ice whenever he’s away
And Mr. Baker, can you tell us why your secretary had to leave this town?
And shouldn’t widow Jones be told to keep her window shades all pulled completely down?

Well, Mr. Harper couldn’t be here ’cause he stayed too long at Kelly’s Bar again
And if you smell Shirley Thompson’s breath, you’ll find she’s had a little nip of gin
Then you have the nerve to tell me you think that as a mother I’m not fit
Well, this is just a little Peyton Place and you’re all Harper Valley hypocrites

No I wouldn’t put you on because it really did, it happened just this way
The day my Mama socked it to the Harper Valley P.T.A.
The day my Mama socked it to the Harper Valley P.T.A.

And that’s Song Lyric Sunday (and Song of the Day) for August 29, 2021.

Song Lyric Sunday: “Let’s Go, Go-Go White Sox”

Jim assigned us sports songs this week, which for me was very easy. I come from Chicago, where we have lots of sports teams and lots of songs to go with them. My favorite team of all is the Chicago White Sox, who after years of frustration finally won the World Series in 2005.

The Sox were one of the original eight teams in the American League, and were a powerhouse through most of their first two decades, winning the American League pennant in 1906, 1917, and 1919. They won the World Series in 1906 against their crosstown rivals the Cubs, in 1917 against the New York Giants in 1917, and were favored to do the same in 1919 against the Cincinnati Reds, but lost. Turns out that eight of the Sox players had conspired with gamblers to throw the Series, and earned a lifetime ban from the game in 1921.

It was 40 years before the Sox won the American League pennant again, in 1959. That was the year of the Go-Go Sox, a team that was built around pitching, fielding, and speed, particular from the "Keystone Twins," second baseman Nellie Fox and shortstop Luis Aparicio. That year, former White Sox minor leaguer Al Trace and his friend Walter "Li’l Wally" Jagiello wrote the song and suggested it to Tom "Captain Stubby" Fouts, leader of the country band Captain Stubby and the Buccaneers, which performed on WLS, at the time the Prairie Farmer station. He agreed to do the song, and it was issued on Jagiello’s record label, Drumboy Records. It was popular in 1959 and for a while after that, then was all but forgotten until 2005, when the Los Angeles Dodgers, who had defeated the White Sox in the 1959 World Series, were coming to town for an interleague series. Someone found the record and played it before the game, and again after the Sox won that day. After that, it was played frequently after Sox wins. The "official" fight song for the Sox in ’05 was Journey’s "Don’t Stop Believin’," but I like this one better.

Wikipedia had the lyrics to the song, as well as the information I gave you above…

White Sox! White Sox!
Go-Go White Sox!
Let’s go, Go-Go White Sox
We’re with you all the way!
You’re always in there fighting,
And you do your best.
We’re glad to have you out here in the Middle West.
We’re gonna root-root-root-root White Sox.
And cheer you on to victory.
When we’re in the stands,
We’ll make those rafters ring;
All through the season,
You will hear us sing.
Let’s go, Go-Go White Sox,
Chicago’s proud of you!

White Sox! White Sox!
Go-Go White Sox!

Root-Root-Root for the White Sox.
We’ll cheer you on to victory.
When we’re in the stands,
We’ll make those rafters ring;
All through the season,
You will hear us sing.
Let’s go, Go-Go White Sox,
Chicago’s proud of you! (Play ball!)
White Sox! White Sox!
Go-Go White Sox!
Let’s go, Go-Go White Sox!
Chicago is proud of you!

That’s Song Lyric Sunday, and Song of the Day, for August 22, 2021.